A Different Ending:
It had been three years — three years since Nora and I had been taken by the Armory. I always remember that day; maybe if we hadn't stopped for a snack, we would have been able to start a new life together. We would have escaped all of the chaos that had surrounded us for centuries. But no — even in our happiest moments, we never could catch a break. Something bad eventually would come along and tear it apart.
The first year in the Armory was torture. In my lifetime, I had been hung with the cows after my coven found out about my siphoning "problem", I was scorned for my feelings towards Nora causing us to have to keep our love a secret, I was hunted down by Rayna for centuries, and I was trapped in a prison world without anything to eat. But above all of these horrible experiences, that first year in the Armory was by far the worst. I was made to think that Nora was dead. I thought I had nothing to live for anymore. The love of my life, my best friend, my teammate — she was gone. All I did for that year was starve and cry; I really thought I would die, and because I thought Nora was gone, I actually wanted to. The worst thing in life is to lose the one you love.
One day, about a month after we were captured, Alex came to my door.
"Please, just kill me already. Why are you keeping me alive?"
"Well look who's all cheery this morning," she responded.
"Oh, shut up," I said as I gave her a glaring stare. Then, I noticed she was holding something. They were tubes filled with blood. "What is that you are holding?"
As I stared down the tubes filled with blood, hoping she would give it to me to drink, she said, "Do you want this?" I nodded quickly and started licking my lips. She inched towards me until finally she reached out her arm to give me the blood. However, right as I was about to take it, she ripped her arm away and stated, "Aw, that's cute; you really thought I would be nice to you and give you this. Not a chance,"
I wanted to rip her throat out. I got overly angry and impatient when I was starving. "Do you just like torturing me, or do you plan on doing something with me?" I demanded.
"Oh, I have a plan. Don't you worry," she responded. "And this blood is a big part of that plan,"
"Whose blood is that, anyway?" I asked. Right after I posed that question, I wished I hadn't. Was it Nora's? Did they —
Before I could finish my horrid thoughts, Alex cut me off: "It's Rayna's blood. Before she escaped the Armory, we took blood from her to experiment with.
"And how do I come into play?"
Alex began to smile as she responded with, "We are going to make pills out of her blood, and then give them to you,"
I started to get very nervous. I shuffled back a little in my bed.
"Why? What is going to happen to me?"
"We don't know what will happen to you. That is the point of experimentation. And don't you worry about what is it for; we will deal with that," she answered.
Then, without another word spoken from either of us, Alex left my room. What had just happened? I was told that I was going to be her Guinea pig. For about an hour, so many possible outcomes ran through my head, all ending in my death, causing me to be extremely angry and upset. I felt hopeless. But then I realized something. The possibility of Nora being dead at this point was very high, so I came to the conclusion that being part of this experiment would be good for me. I could finally die after these three horrible years and be out of my misery of not knowing where Nora was and how she was doing.
A couple of days later, Alex came in with a huge smile on her face. "Guess what?"
"What?" I said in an undermining tone.
"The pills have been made, so we can finally start testing,"
"Yay," I said in a sarcastic tone.
"I know you are not happy about this, but I think you should be. You are helping us find out more about Rayna. Don't you hate her?"
"Of course I hate her. She ran after my family and I for centuries, making our lives a living Hell,"
"Good; I am glad we are now on the same page,"
"That will never happen. These pills will most likely kill me, but you know what, I am okay with that. Can you just answer me one question?"
"Alright, fine" she said. "But after that, you are taking these pills without giving me any trouble. Is that clear?"
"Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes.
"Okay. Go on, then,"
"What have you done with Nora? Is she really dead? Or is she alive? And if she's alive, are you going to give her these pills, too? And —"
"Whoa. Hold your horses, there. That sounds like a heck of a lot more than one question. All I will say is yes. Nora is alive,"
My heart that had been torn apart for the past three years finally sprung back to life. Hearing that Nora was alive gave me purpose in life again. I realized that dying was now not an option. I needed to see her again.
"Alright. Now it's time for the pills,"
"Wait, I —"
"No. No waiting. You said you would give me no trouble, and this sounds a little bit like trouble,"
I nodded my head in agreement and she handed me the pill. As I put it in my mouth, all I could think of was Nora. I had incentive to live again. She was the only thing I cared about, so dying would not be an option for me.
…
For the next two years, I was given those pills. I grew what looked like blood spots all over my arms. Apparently, Alex forget to mention to me that the pills were poisonous to witches, which she knew from the beginning I guess because Rayna herself was immune to witches' powers, Rayna's blood poisoned witches. I really felt like I was going to die, but knowing Nora was alive was me the strength to fight on. I would never give up hope of seeing her again until I took my last breath.
Then, one day, Alex came into my room and told me she had a present for me. Of course I had thought that that present would be more pills. Yay for me. However, after I heard another voice along with Alex's, so I opened my droopy eyes to see who it was and what was going on. I looked up only to find Nora standing outside my door. When she finally made eye contact with me, she looked so surprised; I guess Alex didn't tell her what happened to me either, or that she was coming to see me.
Nora rushed into my room and sat on the bed. I tried to look stronger than I felt, but she could tell something was wrong.
"Are you okay? What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing is wrong; I'm just a little cold and tired, I guess,"
She didn't buy it: "Mare, what did they do to you?"
I lifted my arm and showed her the scars that had formed.
"Oh my god! What is this? What happened to you?" she demanded. After I explained everything that had happened, she turned to Alex who was standing outside my room and gave her the death stare.
"If you help me, then I will help you," Alex said.
"What do you want? I'll do anything,"
"No!" I screamed. "You are not going to do anything for her. It will just be dangerous and nothing will come of it,"
Alex and Nora both ignored me. Alex continued with, "Bring me Enzo, and I'll give you everything I have to help your girlfriend over there,"
Nora turned back to me and said, "I must go. I have to do something,"
"Nora, don't," I grabbed her hand before she left the room. "Please do not go. I am asking you to just stay here and be with me,"
"I can't stay here and do nothing. Don't you want the cure?"
I nodded and let her go instead of telling her that there is no way to save me. Alex had already told me that they failed in making a cure, but I didn't have the strength in me at that moment to tell Nora I was dying. We had finally reunited and I didn't want to make the situation even worse.
…
After a couple of hours, Alex told me that Nora found Enzo. She brought me from my room to the office.
I sat down and fell asleep as standing up and keeping my eyes open were challenges for me. Finally, Nora came back and woke me up, but I was so weak at that point that I couldn't open my eyes for very long.
"Mary Lou, it's me; Nora,"
She started stroking my hair and then said, "Alex has the cure. You are going to be alright,"
Not only did I know she was lying, but I also could hear the pain and hurt in her voice when she said that. I didn't want her to know that I was dying, but now she obviously did.
I opened my eyes for a couple seconds while I responded with, "Nora, I know there's no cure; I know you're lying,"
She didn't know what to say. We both knew I was dying but neither of us could those words out loud.
"We will find a way. I will never give up on you," she said as she leaned in for a kiss. While our lips touched, her right hand cupped my cheek and her left hand stroked my hair. As she pulled away, I began to cry. I couldn't stop myself; I was so upset that Nora and I were finally back together but couldn't be happy due to the pills' effect on me. Nora wiped the tears from my face and tears came running down her cheeks as well.
"Let's get going," she said through the tears. "We need to find a way to keep you alive,"
"Nora, there's no point. There's no way to cure me, and we both know that, so let's just enjoy the moments we have left,"
Despite her reluctance at first to accept my proposal, Nora finally agreed.
…
For the next week, Nora and I spent every single moment together. Because I didn't have much energy left in me, I would have to sometimes sit on the side while Nora did some fun things like bowling. However, we spent most of our time doing things I was also able to do such as watch movies, talk, and cuddle. We talked about what our life could have been like. We discussed what our wedding would have looked like, how many kids we would've had, what our kids' names would have been, and how happy and in love we would be for the rest of our lives. Sometimes we cried on each other's shoulders while talking about what could have been, but then we realized that our life was already so amazing because of our love for each other. Nothing else in the world mattered except for being with one another. We cherished our time together for that week; our love became even stronger.
Nora was my everything and I was her everything, so I knew it was hard for her to watch me die. Who would want to watch their loved one die and know that they can do nothing about it?
…
One night, while I was sleeping, I noticed Nora leaving to go somewhere. I was too weak to follow her, so when she got back, I asked her where she had gone. She told me she had only gone to get some food, but I knew that was a lie; I could always tells when she was lying.
"Nora, tell me the truth,"
"Fine," she said as she rolled her eyes. "I was trying to find a cure for you, okay? Are you happy now that you know that I am struggling with letting you die right before my eyes?"
I knew nothing I said would make it better, so I just embraced her. We stayed like that for a while.
…
A couple of days after that, Nora and I were sitting on a bench outside, the sun beaming down on us, when she said, "I'm afraid, Mary Lou,"
"Afraid of what, my love?" I said with my eyes closed and without much energy in my voice.
"Losing you,"
"Nora —"
"I know we are supposed to be enjoying every moment of the little time that you have left, but I need to say this before anything happens to you,"
"Say what?"
"I'm —"
All of a sudden, I collapsed onto the ground. Nora quickly bent down and sat on the ground, allowing me to lay on her legs. She started to stroke my hair and cry.
"No! I'm not ready for you to leave!"
It was hard to push words out of my mouth, but I had to try and get this out: "Nora, I — I — I love — I love you,"
Her crying changed to sobbing and her sobbing changed to bawling. I wanted to say more to her, but I couldn't get any more words out.
"I'm in love with you, Mary Lou. I am so in love with you. I can't imagine my life without you," she bent her head into my chest as she continued to shed many tears.
I was fighting as hard as I could to stay alive for longer, but my body was giving up on me.
A couple of minutes went by as I tried as hard as I could to stay alive for a little longer; for Nora. Then, I heard something come from Nora's mouth; it sounded like a spell. What was she doing? There was no way to cure me. It must have been a last ditch effort, but I knew it would fail.
The next thing I remember was opening my eyes to see Nora's face, but we weren't outside at the bench anymore, we were inside a house.
"Nora? What's going on?" I said, realizing I was able to speak again.
Nora smiled and kissed me on the forehead.
"I had hope, but I didn't really think it would work," she said in a pleased tone.
"What are you talking about?" I stood up and walked towards the door. "How is this possible?
"I don't know why we never tried it; I guess we thought it was too simple to work,"
"Nora! What are you talking about? Tell me what happened!" I demanded, annoyed that Nora wasn't telling me how I survived.
"I siphoned it out of you,"
"Oh my god. How did we not try that?" I said, amazed at our stupidity.
"Well, the important thing is that you are safe. And that we are together,"
"Forever," I said. And I knew that this time, it really would be forever.